Combating Cannabis Idiocy

Purple —- legalized cannabis
Dark Green —- medical cannabis and decriminalized
Light Green —- medical cannabis
Doo Doo Green —- decriminalized

“There are many excellent reasons to avoid marijuana.”

David Frum, writer for CNN and author of this little doozy, said this in his column Monday. Frum believes that, just like mortgage loans during the housing bubble and student loans for the underprivileged, cannabis will require complicated rules and regulations that will confuse the population.

“Over the past three decades, and in area after area of social life, Americans have replaced simple rules that anybody can follow with complex rules that baffle large numbers of people.”

The simple rule? Cannabis is illegal.

Blacks aren’t people. Women can’t vote. Those were simple too.

Guess what — life isn’t simple.

Frum points out that heavy cannabis use can damage brain development in young people. This would be a better point if legalization in both Washington and Colorado didn’t maintain illegal status for children under the age of 18. He also points out that those who get high are less likely to listen to boring school teachers, and less likely to care about boring jobs.

Oh the humanity.

What I like about Frum is that he doesn’t believe cannabis use should warrant jail time or arrests, but his message is still clear, “Cannabis use is a bad choice”.

The final point makes me laugh.

“There’s a trade-off, yes, and it takes the form of denying less vulnerable people easy access to a pleasure they believe they can safely use. But they are likely deluding themselves about how well they are managing their drug use. And even if they are not deluded — if they really are so capable and effective — then surely they can see that society has already been massively re-engineered for their benefit already. Surely, enough is enough?”

Society has been re-engineered to benefit cannabis users? Wrong. Society was re-engineered 80 years ago when the U.S. Government banned cannabis, and we’re just starting to pull our collective heads out of our collective asses on the issue. As a society, we aren’t even close to where we need to be, or where we’re going to be.

You aren’t free when you don’t have sovereignty over your own body, or when you can still be locked in a cage for growing a natural plant that’s been used for over 10,000 years without killing anyone. My Grandfather has cancer. If I tried to cure his cancer by growing and giving him my own cannabis the U.S. Government would throw me in prison.

I had a much angrier version of this piece and then I decided to smoke. I even wrote it. A bowl of Sour Diesel, I said, always seems to lighten me up and broaden my perception. That version changed and became this version.

David Frum wrote a blurb about cannabis and a novel about two huge political talking points. Cannabis isn’t bad for you, and believing that cannabis legalization is so overwhelmingly dense and complicated that it will confuse and trick innocent minded people into making bad decisions they otherwise wouldn’t make is silly.

We need to educate people like David Frum in more ways than one. If he sat back and smoked a bowl of Sour Diesel I bet his version would change too.